Since his directorial debut with the 2013 hit horror reboot-quel, Evil Dead, Fede Alvarez has been a hotly sought-after director and now he has found his next project with Lionsgate’s upcoming zombie thriller 16 States, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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The film, written by Focus and Crazy, Stupid, Love‘s John Requa and Glen Ficarra, is a timely pandemic story of a mother trying to reach her family in the midst of a zombie outbreak, which reportedly has shades of the Will Smith-led adaptation of the Richard Matheson novel I Am Legend.
Requa and Ficarra have been developing the project since last year, but with the recent world events affecting the industry as a whole, the script got a timely update and became one of the most sought-after scripts following its debut last weekend with a set of studios bidding on the project and Lionsgate coming out on top.
Requa, Ficarra and Alvarez are set to produce alongside Roy Lee and Miri Yoon of Vertigo Entertainment, Charlie Gogolak through his and the writing duo’s Zaftig Films and Shintaro Shimosawa and Rodolfo Sayagues of Bad Hombre. Joe Drake, Nathan Kahane and Erin Westerman will lead the film group for Lionsgate, while Aaron Janus and Scott O’Brien will oversee the project for the studio.
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Drake and Kahane previously worked with Alvarez on his hit directorial debut and his acclaimed second directorial effort Don’t Breathe, having been partners with Sam Raimi at Ghost House, while Westerman was also an executive producer on Don’t Breathe.
